NEW YORK - With one emphatic shot that landed in the left field bleachers, Derek Jeter landed all by himself in the long and storied history of the New York Yankees. He hit a home run in the third inning on Saturday and became the first Yankee to reach 3,000 hits, a milestone considered the gold standard for major-league batters.
"It's a number that has meant a lot to the history of the game," Jeter said of 3,000, after he totaled five hits, including the one that gave the Yankees a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. "To be the only Yankee to do anything is pretty special.
"This is the only team I ever wanted to play for, and to be the only one to do something like this, I don't really know if I can describe it."
Fans at Yankee Stadium cheered for five minutes for Jeter, who long has played at the intersection of the franchise's past and present. After he drove a 3-2 pitch deep into the stands, he rounded the bases and was greeted at the plate by the entire Yankees team. Each one hugged the captain, whose career records and popularity put him in the company of Yankees greats.
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Jeter is only the 28th player to record 3,000 hits, a plateau that always has been synonymous with election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"You're talking about Babe Ruth to Yogi Berra to (Joe) DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle, all of those guys," said Mariano Rivera, who came up through the minors with Jeter and has been his teammate for five World Series championships with the Yankees. "None of those has 3,000."
Entering the game, Jeter had 2,998 and had only two days to attain the milestone at Yankee Stadium - something Jeter, the team and fans all dearly wanted. Jeter, smiling, admitted Saturday evening that he had been lying when he had told the media he was not concerned about doing it at home.
In the first inning, he drove a ground single to left field, which set up his at-bat in the third. It appeared that everyone in the sellout crowd of 48,103 was standing as he approached the plate. The noise was piercing as he blasted a curveball from David Price well into the seats.
Jeter became only the second player to hit a home run for his 3,000th hit (Wade Boggs was the other).
That he did it with a home run in front of the home fans was almost beyond belief.
"If I would have tried to write it," Jeter said, "I wouldn't have even bought it, to be quite honest with you. It was just one of those special days."
